The Skripal Poisonings: The Ducks That Didn't Die

Rob Slane continues to dog the lying British state on its phony investigation of the alleged WMD nerve agent poisoning of Russian traitor Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, midst England's green and pleasant land.

In the fifth, and most recent, of ten planned blog posts on holes in the official narrative of the Salisbury poisonings Slane raises the issue of the dead ducks, or rather their absence.

Well, actually, Slane says nothing much of the ducks, but speaks rather of the duck feeders, a bunch of boys who received duck-bread from the nerve-agent contaminated hands of the Skripals:

After parking the car, at 1:40 pm, the two of them [the Skripals] were seen near the Avon Playground, in The Maltings, feeding ducks with some local boys. This was at 1:45pm and has been confirmed to me by one of the boys’ mothers, who was shown the CCTV footage by the police, which she said was really clear. She also confirmed to me that Mr. Skripal was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, and that Yulia Skripal had a red bag. The Metropolitan Police apparently don’t think the duck feeding incident important enough to include in their timeline, and so after the parking of the car, we are treated to the vague statement that, “at some time after this, they go to the Bishops Mill Pub.” But it is incredibly important, for the following reason: it totally, completely and comprehensively debunks the idea that Mr Skripal was poisoned at his home, after his hand came into contact with a deadly nerve agent on the handle of his front door. Why? BECAUSE HE HANDED BREAD TO THE BOYS, AND NONE OF THEM BECAME CONTAMINATED, THAT’S WHY!

What's more, none of the ducks died, so far as we know, and we would surely have known of it if there had been a die off of ducks fed by the Skripals, further evidence of Russia's totally evil contempt not only for the British state, but the whole living world.

And if you think it far-fetched to suppose that by handing them duck bread the Skripals could have unintentionally poisoned the boys in the park, think again, for as Rob Slane elaborates:

... Zizzis [the restaurant where the Skripals had lunch] has remained shut since the incident, because it was apparently contaminated, and the table that the Skripals ate their meal at “had to be destroyed” because of the apparently high concentration of nerve agent there. Likewise, The Mill [the pub to which the Skripals repaired for an after-lunch tipple] has been closed ever since. And of course the bench [where the Skripals were found apparently incapacitated by Novichoks] too had to be destroyed, since it was apparently contaminated. But these were all places visited by the Skripals AFTER the feeding of the ducks. And so we are asked to believe the following preposterous notion: That Sergei and Yulia Skripal’s hands were contaminated with “military grade nerve agent” at the door of Mr. Skripal’s house, so much so that certain places they visited on that afternoon had to undergo months of decontamination, and certain items they touched had to be destroyed.

But if the Skripals were so contaminated with a deadly nerve agent that giving duck bread to the boys in the park should have poisoned them, what about the ducks that eat the bread that the Skripals gave to the boys in the park. Obviously they would have died. Right? Um, yes, well apparently, not. 

Well done Rob. Keep at it. 

Skripal Tripal, No. 39: Where the Skripals Crossed Paths With the "Amesbury Poisonings" Couple

Thus far, not much about the official account of the Skripal poisonings has made sense. Now, Rob Lane of the Blogmire Blog reveals a huge hole in the account of the affair as provided by the London Metropolitan police, the agency supposed, one might assume, to be investigating not obfuscating, what happened.

According to the Metropolitan police, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia fed the ducks in the Avon Playground, where they were soon afterwards found near death due to what was claimed to be Novichok poisoning.

However, it now emerges that the Skripals went to a different park, the Queen Elizabeth Gardens, not the Avon Playground, to feed ducks after they had been poisoned, a fact confirmed by a report in the Sun newspaper published more than three weeks after the alleged poisonings.

I say "alleged poisonings," since if nothing much else about this tale bears scrutiny, it is only rational to question the central fact of the case, namely the reported poisoning of the now disappeared Skripals from whom we have heard nothing other than a video statement of questionable authenticity from the "recovered" Yulia Skripal.

What this new fact that Rob Lane has brought to light reveals is not only that the original published reports about the movement of the Skripals the day they were poisoned were false, but that immediately before their collapse, the Skripals had been to the Queen Elizabeth Gardens where Charlie Rowley and the now deceased Dawn Sturgess, of the "Amesbury Poisonings" are believed to have been poisoned.

In other words, the media have thus far managed to avoid mentioning what was very likely the critical location at which the paths of the poisoned Skripals, and the poisoned Amesbury couple crossed.

Make what you like of it, but based on their performance on the Novichok file thus far, I wouldn't trust the London Metropolitan Police to investigate the theft of a bicycle, let alone acts of murder leading to an international crisis.

Indeed, it is clear that the performance of the Met in this case is sad evidence of a catastrophic decline in the competence and integrity of British institutions. My late uncle, a man of both intelligence and integrity, was a CID Inspector with the London Met back in the 60's and there's no way I could see him having been involved in such a ridiculous farrago of nonsense as the Skripal investigation.

Related: 

Sputnik: UK Police Says Found Source of Deadly Substance Used in Amesbury Incident
ARD Mediathek: The Skripal Case: Berlin has until today no evidence from London

Translation via John_a at Craig Murray's blog:

Until today the German Federal Government has been waiting in vain: As RBB Radio has learned from government circles, until today the British Government has presented absolutely no evidence to the Federal Government that would prove that Russia is responsible for the poison attack on the double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Federal Government reported this yesterday to the Parliamentary Control Committee of the German Federal Parliament in a closed session. Up till now it has simply been learned that the poison concerned was Novichok, a chemical weapon that was produced in the Soviet Union. Beyond this the British Government has so far presented absolutely no evidence. It could neither prove that the poison used came from Russia, nor that the Kremlin was responsible for the attack, it was reported.

 According to RBB information, the German intelligence services also have no information from their own sources that would permit such conclusions.

 After Yulia Skripal, her father Sergei has also now left the hospital. In recent days, Yulia Skripal made a brief statement before the cameras in Great Britain.[A SHORT EXCERPT IN RUSSIAN IS HEARD.] She said that she still found it hard to believe that she and her father were attacked in this way, and that their recovery had been slow and painful. The doctors in the hospital in Salisbury said that the Skripals’ recovery bordered on a miracle; it had really been assumed that they would not survive.

The Skripal case led to a dramatic deterioration in diplomatic relations between Russia and numerous western countries. After the British Government had declared that it was convinced that Russia was responsible for the poison attack on Skripal and his daughter, over 140 Russian diplomats were expelled from a total of 26 European countries, the USA and NATO, an event that was unique in its scale. Germany also participated, and expelled four Russian diplomats. In return, Russia expelled the same number of diplomats from the countries concerned.

NDR, WDR, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit had reported that in the 1990s a Russian scientist had offered a sample of Novichok to the [German] Federal Intelligence Service [BND]. Since then it is known that the nerve poison was exported from Russia, at least to the West. It is not clear where else it might possibly have found its way to.

The conduct of the British Government is increasingly putting the German Federal Government in a position where it is difficult to explain itself. Beyond the fact that the poison has been identified as Novichok, there is no trail that leads to Russia, let alone to the Kremlin. The decision to participate in the expulsion of Russian diplomats therefore appears more than questionable.

The Novichok File (30)

March 18,2018: Skripal Tripal

April 5, 2018: NoviJoke: To Russia With Hate

April 11, 2018: Are the Skripals in Mortal Danger From the British State?
 April12, 2018: Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning?

April 13, 2018: Why Yulia Skripal, Released From Hospital, Is Being Held in UK Police Custody

April 15, 2018: 3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate: The Antidote to Novichok

April 16: The UK's Novichok Poisoning Cover-up

April 21,2018:WMD Attack in Salisbury, England: Nerve Agent, Russian Agent, Double 

April 23, 2018: British Intelligence: An Oxymoron

Agent, Triple Agent, Spiked Blood Sample, Silent Witnesses, and Propaganda

May 15, 2018: UK Academics Demolish Theresa May's Skripal Poisoning Lies

June 15, 2018: The Skripal Poisonings: How? By Whom? With What? And Where Are the Skripals Now?
July 4, 2018: More Skripal Tripal From the Land of Thereason May
July 8, 2018: Theresa May's Tangled Web Of Toxic Nerve Agent Deception

July 9, 2018: UK Ambassador, Craig Murray, Gears Up to Demolish the Lies About  the Amesbury Poisonings From Thereason May's Law 'n Order minister, Savidge Javidge
July 12, 2018: Skripal Tripal, No. 39: Where the Skripals Crossed Paths With the "Amesbury Poisonings" Couple

July 13, 2018: Novichok on a Door Knob: An Official Conspiracy Theory
July 24, 2018: Understanding Theresa May's Novichok Bollocks
July 27, 2018: Britain's Novichok Poisonings: An Opportunistic Anti-Russian Propaganda Operation?
August 28, 2018: The ducks that didn't die
August 29, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Examines the British Deep State's Connection with the Skripal Nerve Agent Poisonings
September 6, 2018: Theresa May's New Statement on Russia's Nerve Agent Attack in England's Green and Pleasant Land Drives Intelligence Irregulars to Renewed Effort on the Novichok File
September 13, 2018: Ambassador Craig Murray Probes the Alibi of Petrov and Bashirov, the Alleged (by Theresa May) Skripal/Novichok Poisoners
April 16, 2019: MOON OF ALABAMA CIA Director Used Fake Skripal Incident Photos To Manipulate Trump
April 16, 2019: ROB SLANE: Trump in Dumps as Spook Picks Sick Kids’n’Dead Duck Trick Pics
April 18, 2019: CRAIG MURRAY, The Official Skripal Story is a Dead Duck
July 23, 2019:Were the Skripal Poisonings a British Intelligence Service Hoax?
October 17, 2019: Skripal Tripal Part 2: Well Wadderyerknow — the Conroner's Inquest Into the Death of Dawn Sturgess Has Been Adjourned indefinitely
March 7, 2020: Craig Murray - Pure: Ten Points I Just Can’t Believe About the Official Skripal Narrative
June 17, 2020: Craig Murray - The Miracle of Salisbury: The BBC Enters 'Propaganda Hall Of Fame' With Skripals Story
June 19, 2020: 5 Facts BBC’s “The Salisbury Poisonings” Forgot to Mention
July 30, 2020: Dances With Bears: AUSTRIA CONFIRMS OPCW REPORT ON SKRIPAL FAKING BY THE BRITISH – VIENNA EXPOSES FINANCIAL TIMES LIES AND COVER-UP

Why Yulia Skripal, Released From Hospital, Is Being Held in UK Police Custody

Having reworked and extended my earlier post Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning I am more inclined than before to believe it possible that the Skripals were treated with Novichok as an antidote to botulinum toxin, it being the case that the one nerve agent, because of a difference in mode of action, could be an effective antidote to the other nerve agent, as explained in my earlier post.

To be credible, the theory must presume orchestration of the entire sequence of events. Thus, the botulinum toxin must have been deliberately administered as a sub-lethal dose in the seafood lunch that the Skripals consumed several hours before they were taken ill. (Although botulinum toxin can occur in seafood, it does not occur in fresh seafood — as opposed to canned food, since  Clostridium botulinum only produces the toxin under anoxic conditions.)

But if the affair was orchestrated, the Skripals were surely participants rather than victims in the operation, a plausible assumption since Sergei Skripal is known to have worked for MI6 and may have resumed his service to them on release from Russian gaol.

So how was it worked?

I suggest that there was a small dose of botulinum toxin added to their seafood lunch, which caused illness several hours later, but not the vomiting and convulsions as reported by the doctor who attended on them and asked that her name not be released to the public. Rather the illness would have been manifest as the paralysis characteristic of botulism. If that assumption is correct, then we must assume that the attending, unidentified doctor who described the Skripals' symptons as those of poisoning by a nerve agent of the Novichok type (i.e., a convulsant), is an agent of MI6 and that she deliberately misled the media.

Once received at the Salisbury Trust Hospital, experts in nerve agent poisoning at the nearby British Chemical and Biological Weapons research establishment would likely have been consulted, which would have created the opportunity for them to supply the hospital with British-made Novichok (a nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union) as an antidote to botulinum toxin, the mechanism whereby one nerve agent counteracts another being described in my previous post. The identity of this antidote may well not have been disclosed to the Hospital staff.

After that, the Skripals may have been kept in a more or less comotose state with, perhaps repeated small doses of botulinum toxin, which would have necessitated continual infusions of Novichok to prevent paralysis and death by asphyxiation. That would explain why, weeks after the initial poisoning, blood samples of the "victims" still contained detectable quantities of Novichok, as established by independent testing of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It would also explain why Yulia Skripal, though released from hospital, is in UK police custody.

The objective now, if the above scenario is a more or less accurate representation of actual events, must be to keep the Skripals out of the hands of the Russian state, where they could be forced to disclose their complicity in a psyop. perpetrated to undermine the credibility and moral standing of the Russian government. That would explain the offer by the CIA to give the Skripals new identities.

Related: 
Sergei Lavrov: UK staged the Syrian chemical weapons attack
Craig Murray: Just Who’s Pulling the Strings?

Novichok: Russia's Antidote to Seafood Poisoning?

UK PM, Theresa May, already in a state of Russophobic arousal because of the alleged nerve-agent poisoning of a retired Russian spy on British Soil, is now ready to follow Tony Bliar by entering into an Anglo-American war of aggression against a small middle-Eastern power, based on a pack of lies: specifically, the allegation by the usual head-chopping suspects that Syrian President Assad is killing his own people with chemical weapons. Examination of the published evidence, however, reveals a total lack of substance. 

For example, US Secretary of Defense, General Mattis, a few hours ago told Congress that "he believes" that there was a chemical attack in Syria, but added that "the United States wants inspectors on the ground soon since the job of collecting evidence becomes more difficult as time passed."

So what Mattis knows about events in Douma at the time of the alleged chlorine gas attack is, apparently, nothing. But for the sake of the pro-war narrative, Mattis "believes" what there is no evidence for believing.

As for Britain's celebrated nerve agent attack on the former Russian Spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, it is interesting to note that the Skripals became ill several hours after a seafood lunch.

That is interesting because the time of onset of symptoms of poisoning relative to the time of their midday meal, i.e., an interval of several hours, is consistent with seafood poisoning, not nerve agent poisoning, which takes effect within seconds of contact.

Seafood poisoning can be due to the presence many different toxins,* including botulinum toxin, which inhibits release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby causing paralysis and, in severe cases, death by asphyxiation.

Image source

To counter the toxin, it would be reasonable, therefore, in a severe case, to treat patients with an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor to maximize the effect of whatever small quantity of acetylcholine is still being released into the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction. Thus, if the Salisbury Trust Hospital where the Skripals were taken for treatment had requested the assistance of people at Britain's nearby Porton Down chemical and biological weapons research lab, as surely they would have, then they may well have been supplied with a small dose of British-made Novichok,** a most powerful choline esterase inhibitor, to increase the persistence of whatever acetylcholine was being produced at the neuromuscular junction***. 

By inhibiting the action of acetylcholinesterase a nerve agent such

as Novichok increases the persistence of acetyl choline in the cleft

of the neuromuscular junction, thereby countering the inhibition of 

acetyl choline release caused by botulinum toxin. Image source.

If that were the case, then the British Government would have the perfect set-up for the incitement of Russophobia. Specifically, they would have been in a position to supply the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with blood samples of the afflicted Russians that contained traces of Novichok,  a nerve agent "of a type developed in Russia," as British Government representatives, from Theresa May on down, have repeatedly stated.

Note:
Clearly the account of the Skripals' poisoning offered here is speculative, but it centers on a theory as to how the blood samples from the Skripals could have contained traces of Novichok in a way consistent with the letter to the Times from the Salisbury Trust Hospital's Resident in Emergency Medicine, Stephen Davies. In that letter, Davies said "no patients have experienced nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury:"  a true statement if the Skripals were treated with, not poisoned by, Novichok. Botulinum toxin, it is true, is also a nerve agent, but considered, in the present context, not as a nerve agent but a form of food poisoning. 

————
* Seafoods may contain many kinds of toxin, mostly of a type known as nerve agents, aka WMD's. The various toxins are produced by different microorganisms. Some toxins act as sodium-channel blockers, thereby preventing the spreading wave of electrical depolarization of nerve cell membranes that constitutes a nerve impulse.

A common microbial contaminant of seafood is Clostridium botulinum, which in one survey was found in about one quarter of all fish and shellfish samples tested. In the absence of oxygen, for example in canned fish that has been incompletely sterilized, Clostridium botulinum produces botulinum toxin, the deadliest poison known, ten billionths of a gram being sufficient to cause death.

As an inhibitor of acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, botulinum toxin causes paralysis. The effect of botulinum toxin should thus be countered by nerve agents such as Novichok an inhibitor acetylcholine esterase, which causes tetany, or intense muscle contraction, by preventing break-down of whatever acetylcholine is released at the neuromuscular juction.

** According to Cornell University Chemistry Professor, Dave Collum, Novichok is a simple compound that could be prepared by his third year organic chemistry students. It is almost certain, therefore, that the Porton Down lab would have a supply of Novichok on hand.

*** Zakhari, J.S. et al. 2011. Formulating a new basis for the treatment against botulinum neurotoxin intoxication: 3,4-Diaminopyridine prodrug design and characterization Bioorg. Med. Chem. 9(21):6203-9.

Related:
Craig Murray:Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress
Moon of Alabama: Yulia Skripal released from Hospital: held in UK police custody.

Are the Skripals in Mortal Danger From the British State?

British Prime Minister, Theresa May, claims that the Russian spy turned British double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, were the victims of an attempted nerve-agent assassination conducted on British soil on the direct orders of President Putin.

However, the evidence presented by the British state to substantiate its extraordinary allegation is, as we discussed, here, (and here, and here) essentially non-existent. Rather it appears from the circumstances that the incident was staged by the British state to stoke Russophobia. That would explain the timing, in advance of this week's almost certainly fake chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria by, so Western media assert without evidence or question, Russia's ally, the Government of Syria.

Consistent with that inference is that the two incidents have been acclaimed with joy by warmongers in both London and Washington, DC as justification for NATO intervention in support of ISIS head-choppers in Syria against the Russian-backed Syrian Government.

Who then constitutes the greatest threat to the well-being of the Skripals? Is it the British state that apparently mounted either a fake or a failed nerve agent attack on them, an attack it then vociferously blamed on the Russians? Or is it the Russians who pardoned Sergei Skripal and released him from gaol years ago?

As long as one or both of the Skripals lives, whether under their own name or another, they represent a risk to the government of British Prime Minister, Theresa May, since they might reveal what actually happened in Salisbury when they were, according to the unsubstantiated claim of the British Government, exposed to the deadliest known nerve agent on the direct orders of President Putin.

In that context, the British Government, with assistance from the CIA is offering the Skripals the opportunity to depart the scene for new lives in the US or elsewhere under new identities.

For the Skripals, the opportunity can hardly be appealing. Not only must they sever all ties with family and friends in Russia and elsewhere, but the offer entails obvious personal risk.

Having induced them to depart the scene in name, why would the British state or their friends in America, not have them depart the scene in body and spirit also. Their identities already erased, supposedly for their own good, who would know, or even think to ask, whether they had also been silenced permanently by the hand of a British or American state assassin?

To the Russians, however, the Skripals are more valuable alive than dead as witnesses to a British operation designed to stoke Western Russophobia as a prelude to war. That they are of potential value to the Russians, is of course, the reason why the appear to be at great risk as long as they remain in the hands of the British state.

Related: 

MofA: Trump Asks Russia To Roll Over - It Won't
Craig Murray: Yulia Skripal Is Plainly Under Duress
Peter Ford, Former UK Ambassador to Syria: At the Edge of Armageddon:
RT: Russia accuses US of plan to destroy evidence of fake chemical weapons attack in Syria
Stephen Lendman: The Nerve Agent Saga: Are the Skripals Being Held Against Their Will in Britain?

By Finian Cunningham: Skripal Poison Case Becoming British Hostage Scenario